I had a great video about cats that I wanted to be my first post. But alas, I settle for this, ".....testing."
WEEK TWO & THREE
The Emperor Jones
Full length adaptation of The Emperor Jones to film (1933).
How different is this, just reading the synopsis/description below the video gives you an idea of the changes they made.
I've had a few basic 'building block' ideas for the set design.
Going through the script, it's obvious that a lot of props and objects used are functional and symbolic.
The best examples of this are as follows;
Panama & Palm leaf hats ; from the beginning it is established (amongst other things) Jones' superiority and wealth over the rest of the slaves
Revolver - symbolic of Jones' downfall, his defence, his 'luck running out'. Every time he uses a bullet, it's in a heat of the moment where he's in a position of distress and fear, which shows how he is careless about his advantages.
The direction I think I will go, in reference to the set design, will probably be one that plays with levels and colours, how ever this is just my first idea and I want to steer clear of the symbolism being too easy to understand - I'd like the audience to think and work to understand what it could mean.
WEEK FOUR
I've found some basic images I'd like to work from with my idea of setting Emperor Jones in an industrial clothing factory...mainly take from them some of the forms and shapes that are created by a production line. And also the colours (especially in the first photo of the action man dolls) which to me emit tackiness and cheapness.
Representing this kind of space on stage would be exciting to explore. I'll have to investigate ways of using shapes to mimic this.
Michael Wolf pursued making a photographic blog of his visit to a Chinese toy manufacturer factory. I feel a little sickened looking through the photos, wonderful photography though.
One of the most interesting things that I've drawn from these photos is the 'slavery' aspect that the accompanying articles report. The repression that is evident in the script of The Emperor Jones, is alike to the workers seen here. The theme of repression is definitely the key link of this idea to the same theme in the script.
Week Five. To update on a few ideas I’ve had over the past week…
I’m still undecided on which idea to pursue… to reiterate…
ONE: Set constructed as a contemporary children’s playground, complete with sandpit. The concept behind this stems from the idea that battling with your past, your history, your ancestry, exceeds age limitations. An African American today lives with being identified with their origins of slavery, that they would almost definitely have relations to, as well as white supremacy that reigned America until the mid to late twentieth centuries (and beyond?). The same applies to white Americans, whose ancestry were the oppressors of said historic events (This, of course, is a generalization…but the point remains).
The story of bringing down the powerful is also timeless and ageless. Although we may like to believe in the purity and innocence of childhood, whom are later inflicted with the battles of life, may we not forget the saying ‘kids are cruel’. It is perhaps the instinct that we are born with that is always evident when it comes to being in a position of supremacy or power.
TWO: The sweatshop of a clothes/fabric maker in China.
Again, the timelessness of the story of The Emperor Jones is brilliant and so easy to work with; repression, inequality, slave work, power, all this links to the contemporary setting of conditions of workers in The PRC.
I’d like to really work through these likenesses and combine the traditions of China; the colours, fabric, costume, architecture, music, instruments, religion; with its context today, that of the production of commodities for the western world, the first world, our world.
The rich colours above contrasted with the colours produced in the sweatshop (below)...
I'm also being quite drawn to a band, a particular song that to me, combines traditional and contemporary instruments and sounds. Atmospheric. Listen here: Flatlands by Barn Owl
This week I plan to have an (at least almost) finalised design plan.
I'd like to collect a wide range of traditional Chinese fabric and design to draw from, and how I would incorporate it into the design.
inspirational work...listening to the music has changed my mind about an assessment component...I'll tell you in class...remind me!!
Will do, Serge!
WEEK SIX
After having a really good discussion with a friend who studied design, I told him my idea and we threw around some more ideas. I was having trouble with the set being too realistic, too functional; I want it to change form over the course of the play…to disfigure itself…like the way muscles swell after it’s been hurt, to rise with tensions. He suggested to go back and look at my original designs/thoughts and also look at the origins of sweatshops and the beginnings of industrially produced material/clothing.
So I have.
This led me to Loom weaving, one of the oldest ‘machines’ for weaving thread. Illustrations have been found on Ancient Egyptian pottery of horizontal ground loom designs) and adopted through Asia and Europe since.
What has attracted me most to these Loom weaving machines is that thread is pulled, stretched and tightened in order to weave, creating a texture that resembles nets. Why resembling nets is important, I will explain...
Foxconn Technology Group is a company that produces of 50% of the world technological devices, including Nintendo, Sony and Apple products. All of Foxconn factories are located in China...the hotpot of cheap labour. In 2010, a total of fourteen workers committed suicide (Eighteen attempted in total) by jumping off the top of the Foxconn buildings. Foxconn response was to a) have employers sign a contract that obligates them not to attempt and/or succeed at committing suicide, and b) attach nets to the side of the factory buildings to 'catch' and falling bodies.
(Please forgive my average drawing skills)
These are design ideas I had in the very beginning. I started designing very realistically, very functionally...how I have seen a factory is set up... But with the stretched traditional Chinese material at the back which I had in mind to use for the apparitions...
these drawings are exceptional...it's in the process of sketching that we find inspiration...the brain is meandering through all the ideas...and then...voila!
I then started to look at the office and how that would represent the palace...but only for the first scenes with Smithers and wouldn't be used again...
I decided that stairs and a door would be all I need to represent to palace.
I've then placed rolls of material in the back corners, near the Emperor's office placed up-stage centre, for the apparitions to pull across and play with over the stage.
The rough design here has alot of detail...cracked cement floors... power cords hanging from above... and finally the netting downstage that would hang over the first two to three rows of seats... an Idea that I have since developed to be work better.
These designs are very basic (if you can make it out)
I am going to be doing more now that I know I'm going to be including loom weaving and am going in a less realistic direction. http://en.academic.ru/dic.nsf/enwiki/29842
Despite some confusion with other people's images...the portfolio clearly shows your design concept. D Serge...I don't know those first two images...whose are they?? Not mine :(
Well researched and extremely well presented. Some uncertainties: 1 Pollock painting under Tashime should be in abstract expressionism 2 Pop art drew on images from popular culture...from the print media - such as comics and newspapers 3 Examples of formalism? 4 Cubism...multiple POV on the one canvas
WEEK TWO & THREE
The Emperor JonesFull length adaptation of The Emperor Jones to film (1933).
How different is this, just reading the synopsis/description below the video gives you an idea of the changes they made.
I've had a few basic 'building block' ideas for the set design.
Going through the script, it's obvious that a lot of props and objects used are functional and symbolic.
The best examples of this are as follows;
The direction I think I will go, in reference to the set design, will probably be one that plays with levels and colours, how ever this is just my first idea and I want to steer clear of the symbolism being too easy to understand - I'd like the audience to think and work to understand what it could mean.
WEEK FOUR
I've found some basic images I'd like to work from with my idea of setting Emperor Jones in an industrial clothing factory...mainly take from them some of the forms and shapes that are created by a production line. And also the colours (especially in the first photo of the action man dolls) which to me emit tackiness and cheapness.Representing this kind of space on stage would be exciting to explore. I'll have to investigate ways of using shapes to mimic this.
Michael Wolf pursued making a photographic blog of his visit to a Chinese toy manufacturer factory.
I feel a little sickened looking through the photos, wonderful photography though.
One of the most interesting things that I've drawn from these photos is the 'slavery' aspect that the accompanying articles report. The repression that is evident in the script of The Emperor Jones, is alike to the workers seen here. The theme of repression is definitely the key link of this idea to the same theme in the script.
Week Five.
To update on a few ideas I’ve had over the past week…
I’m still undecided on which idea to pursue… to reiterate…
ONE:
Set constructed as a contemporary children’s playground, complete with sandpit.
The concept behind this stems from the idea that battling with your past, your history, your ancestry, exceeds age limitations. An African American today lives with being identified with their origins of slavery, that they would almost definitely have relations to, as well as white supremacy that reigned America until the mid to late twentieth centuries (and beyond?). The same applies to white Americans, whose ancestry were the oppressors of said historic events (This, of course, is a generalization…but the point remains).
The story of bringing down the powerful is also timeless and ageless. Although we may like to believe in the purity and innocence of childhood, whom are later inflicted with the battles of life, may we not forget the saying ‘kids are cruel’. It is perhaps the instinct that we are born with that is always evident when it comes to being in a position of supremacy or power.
Resource: http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WMVBJ_Kennedy_Playground_Fremont_Ca
TWO:
The sweatshop of a clothes/fabric maker in China.
Again, the timelessness of the story of The Emperor Jones is brilliant and so easy to work with; repression, inequality, slave work, power, all this links to the contemporary setting of conditions of workers in The PRC.
I’d like to really work through these likenesses and combine the traditions of China; the colours, fabric, costume, architecture, music, instruments, religion; with its context today, that of the production of commodities for the western world, the first world, our world.
Resource: http://www.us-china-edu.com
The rich colours above contrasted with the colours produced in the sweatshop (below)...
This week I plan to have an (at least almost) finalised design plan.
I'd like to collect a wide range of traditional Chinese fabric and design to draw from, and how I would incorporate it into the design.
inspirational work...listening to the music has changed my mind about an assessment component...I'll tell you in class...remind me!!
Will do, Serge!
WEEK SIX
After having a really good discussion with a friend who studied design, I told him my idea and we threw around some more ideas. I was having trouble with the set being too realistic, too functional; I want it to change form over the course of the play…to disfigure itself…like the way muscles swell after it’s been hurt, to rise with tensions. He suggested to go back and look at my original designs/thoughts and also look at the origins of sweatshops and the beginnings of industrially produced material/clothing.
So I have.
This led me to Loom weaving, one of the oldest ‘machines’ for weaving thread. Illustrations have been found on Ancient Egyptian pottery of horizontal ground loom designs) and adopted through Asia and Europe since.
What has attracted me most to these Loom weaving machines is that thread is pulled, stretched and tightened in order to weave, creating a texture that resembles nets. Why resembling nets is important, I will explain...
Foxconn Technology Group is a company that produces of 50% of the world technological devices, including Nintendo, Sony and Apple products. All of Foxconn factories are located in China...the hotpot of cheap labour. In 2010, a total of fourteen workers committed suicide (Eighteen attempted in total) by jumping off the top of the Foxconn buildings. Foxconn response was to a) have employers sign a contract that obligates them not to attempt and/or succeed at committing suicide, and b) attach nets to the side of the factory buildings to 'catch' and falling bodies.
(Please forgive my average drawing skills)
These are design ideas I had in the very beginning. I started designing very realistically, very functionally...how I have seen a factory is set up... But with the stretched traditional Chinese material at the back which I had in mind to use for the apparitions...
these drawings are exceptional...it's in the process of sketching that we find inspiration...the brain is meandering through all the ideas...and then...voila!
I then started to look at the office and how that would represent the palace...but only for the first scenes with Smithers and wouldn't be used again...
I decided that stairs and a door would be all I need to represent to palace.
I've then placed rolls of material in the back corners, near the Emperor's office placed up-stage centre, for the apparitions to pull across and play with over the stage.
The rough design here has alot of detail...cracked cement floors... power cords hanging from above... and finally the netting downstage that would hang over the first two to three rows of seats... an Idea that I have since developed to be work better.
These designs are very basic (if you can make it out)
I am going to be doing more now that I know I'm going to be including loom weaving and am going in a less realistic direction.
http://en.academic.ru/dic.nsf/enwiki/29842
Despite some confusion with other people's images...the portfolio clearly shows your design concept. D
Serge...I don't know those first two images...whose are they?? Not mine :(
Well researched and extremely well presented.
Some uncertainties:
1 Pollock painting under Tashime should be in abstract expressionism
2 Pop art drew on images from popular culture...from the print media - such as comics and newspapers
3 Examples of formalism?
4 Cubism...multiple POV on the one canvas
Other wise, as expected, good work
D
Dramaturgical Data